This Beauty Brand Is Saving Shelter Animals

The Important Way This Beauty Brand Is Saving Shelter Animals

Update: When you smear on eye cream at the end of each night, you're probably not worried about helping anything other than your crow's feet or undereye bags. But the team behind PRAI Beauty is dedicated to more than solving your skin-care woes (although, that may be the reason its products sell out with aplomb on both QVC and HSN) — they're also saving thousands of animals.

Since launching its "Free The Shelters" campaign last year, a brand rep tells Refinery29 the beauty company has partnered with 32 shelters around the country, sponsoring all adoption fees and saving more than 2,169 (!) animals to date. But they aren't done yet: This weekend, on February 23, PRAI is teaming up with Adopt A Dog in Armonk, NY, and three Animal Rescue League shelters in Iowa, to help more than 200 animals find homes.

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"I believe that all beauty brands should give back to the community in some way," founder Cathy Kangas says. "That's part of the DNA of PRAI Beauty through PRAI for PAWS. It is my hope that Free the Shelters will inspire other beauty brands to see animals in a different light and make sure that all of their products are cruelty-free."

A way to save your skin and your furry friends? Now that's what we call eye opening.

This story was originally published on May 25, 2017.

If you've ever felt the need to dodge those sad, pleading eyes of the helpless, caged, and abandoned animals in Sarah McLachlan's ASPCA commercial, congrats! You're a human with a pulse (and access to cable TV). After all, it doesn't take an activist to know the world can be a cruel, cruel place for pets.

That's why it's encouraging when companies stand up for them — especially within the beauty industry, where animal testing is sadly still common practice. Take Cathy Kangas, the founder of skin-care brand PRAI Beauty: She just launched a national campaign in which the beauty company will sponsor all adoption fees at shelters across the coast. You hear that noise? That's the sound of lots of wagging tails.

The launch event will take place this weekend on Saturday, May 27 at Adopt-A-Dog’s shelter in Armonk, New York. According to Patch, PRAI Beauty will also front the fees for adoptions taking place that day at two other organizations, including SBK Animals in the Bluff City and Kingsport towns in Tennessee, as well as Great Plains SPCA in Independence, Missouri, and Merriam, Kansas.

"We pride ourselves in being first at PRAI Beauty and this campaign is no exception," she told the website. "These three shelters are just the beginning… we are starting a movement. Shelter pets can be pedigree or mutts, young or old — they're all perfect and they need to find good homes. With this campaign, we will make it easier for every dog, cat and pocket pet to find its forever home."